The owner of the French faulty breast implant maker Poly Implant Prosthese (PIP) was arrested by police yesterday and put under house arrest.

72-year-old Jean-Claude Mas is expected to face charges of endangering the health of up 30,000 French women who have had implants, knowingly filled with sub standard industrial silicone which was known to have a tendency to rupture.

It is understood that 400,000 women in 65 countries have had the same implants, some of them here in Malta. Some governments have advised recipients to monitor them constantly. Others have advised women to have the removed. Others have offered to replace them on the National Health.

The material used in these implants was banned by France in 2010, yet Mas continued to use the said silicone. What is heinous about the whole situation is that Mas knew what he was doing all along and even admitted in a police interview that he ordered employees to hide the unauthorised silicone when inspectors visited the factory.

He also admitted that PIP had been deceiving European safety inspectors for 13 years. Mas claims that the implants pose no threat to health and has even gone on to criticize those who have advised for women to have them removed because they would be subjecting themselves to unnecessary surgery. But no one can really take the man seriously. He has accused women who have filed complaints of wanting to “make money”. It is clear that he feels he has done absolutely nothing wrong.

The issue here is not whether one agrees with breast implants or not, that is up to the person who chooses (or not) to have the procedure. The real argument here is that customers are buying a product which is sold to them as being safe and not a danger to their health. When people part with money, they have every right to expect a good, safe high quality product in return. Not only has Mas endangered women’s health, he has also sold and advertised products under false pretences – a double foul.

It must also be pointed out that women who undergo this procedure are not simply buying oranges and lemons (no pun intended) – they know full well that their body will be violated and that they are indeed taking a risk to do something for their own self esteem. What we mean here, is that the blow is much harder for women who have undergone surgery to make themselves feel better, only to later find out that someone has been knowingly taking risks with their health and their very being. If Mas is found guilty of endangering the health of women in France, then he should serve jail time, and he should be ordered to pay for replacement surgery for each and every of those 400,000 women who would seek it. Shameful, irresponsible and downright cruel, were his actions. The West recoils when it hears of tainted milk in China and other incidents in other countries, the truth is it happens in our own ‘civilised’ countries… our CEOs are just more adept at deception.